My group stay out.

I've read through the rules, and I'm having trouble telling how badly a spellcaster would hex technology. Seems like a pretty basic thing, but the rules are either very vague or my reading comprehension is failing. There seem to be vague guidelines that a character with more magic will foul up technology worse, but how badly? Where's the cutoff between "just a bit old fashioned" and "lives like the unabomber"?

I'm sure this one comes up a lot.

In social combat, or just regular rolls, how do you keep player knowledge separate from character? That is, if someone is being evasive but also trying to make it not look like they are being deceptive, how do you do that? Saying they're rolling Deceit is somewhat obvious, after all. Heck, in certain situations having a roll at all can be tipping your hand.

For instance, let's say your players go to someone for information on a subject. She knows a lot about it, and would freely provide the information, but the PCs showing up here at all have her a bit rattled for reasons they should not know. Her goal is to just give enough (truthful) information about the subject they're looking for to get rid of them. She's not lying, she just doesn't want them to get suspicious. Rolling Lore modified by Deceit would be tipping your hand since it's normally a subject she wouldn't even need a Lore roll for. The reverse is also true, particularly when you call for an Empathy roll to oppose her.

What do you do in these sort of situations?

No real spoilers, but my players don't really want to read my slightly snarky recap, do they?




So, I built my first session around three characters. I had them all planned out, and had the others slotted in as "will show up where needed." So, naturally, all three of them cancelled, and I was stuck with two players and no plans for them. Lesson learned.

With two incredibly disappointed and disheartened players, I decided to run a semi-canon combat test just to get things running. I actually had a plan for this scene to happen much later, but I ran it as a cold open just to get everyone involved. As Raymond Chandler said, if things are dull, send in thugs with guns and figure out why they're there later. Well, Raven Mockers are close to thugs with guns. So we had an Autumn Knight baker wrapping up a day at her bakery when suddenly three naked old people with bird feathers decided to jump her for reasons I will have to figure out eventually.

The scene was a cramped and dark alley. I decided to compel one of her aspects to let the Raven Mockers get the jump on her. I was moderately afraid when the thing rolled a 5 shift damage against her right out the gate. Yeesh. So she took a consequence of "Tis but a scratch" and then it took a while to explain that 3 stress does not mean you mark off all 3 boxes. That player has experience with D&D only, so I decided to focus on her more than the other player since she needed more explanation to get into the feel of this.

Next it was her turn, so I asked what she wanted to do. She asked what could she do. I answered anything, what do you want to do? This went on for a while until it reached Countdown to Final Crisis-levels of absurdity. Eventually I started throwing out suggestions and she decided to do a block, using her Sponsored Magic to summon a shield of wind around herself to protect from attacks. Progress was made.

The Raven Mockers are actually pretty balls when it comes to a straight-up fight, so now things were more even. It couldn't get through her shield and was sent aside by the wind, so I gave helpful suggestions on how to handle it. She stabbed it with a knife that she had as an aspect, and did some pretty good damage. I decided not to use mook rules since this was just a test, and let it take a consequence of "pinned" as she ran its shoulder through and against the wall. However, it's cry drew the attention of the others who were searching for her.

Next I decided to bring in the other player. He is a bit more systems-savvy and playing a wereraven. Perfect for dealing with Raven Mockers. I gotta give him props, what he managed to do in bird form was damn impressive. He distracted the first add to arrive by using a maneuver to give it an aspect of "What just hit me?" as he intercepted its dive and sent it crashing into garbage cans. It threw it off immediately with an Alertness roll, but that still took it out for one round.

The other Raven Mocker managed to tag the Knight's consequence by grabbing her injured side in order to apply an aspect of "Disarmed" to her and take her knife. This led to another argument because she assumed that would be two actions. I eventually explained, carefully, that it was not in fact two actions because it did no damage and the end result was it was still Pinned by her knife, just she was no longer holding it.

She was rather upset by this, particularly the interaction of the Pinned Consequence on it, and the Disarmed aspect on her. I explained that she could in fact still tag that Pinned for free, she just had to be creative. After successful negotiation, she used her Autumn Winds to spin it around, slam it against the wall, and tag the aspect in order to drive the knife clean through. Awesome.

So back to the wereraven, he used his Deceit to apply an aspect of Hot Pursuit to the Mocker he hit earlier, and the two were off into the sky. I realized at this point I forgot to create zones for the sky above this alley, but I think I managed to *sunglasses* wing it. YEAAAAAAHH

The Raven Mocker fighting the Knight turned itself towards her and tried to enact what I had originally planned. It rolled Fists to try to grab a bit of her hair...and whiffed. Seriously, it was a -3 and a blank. It just totally botched that one and might as well have been trying to hit the moon. The one on the wereraven managed to do the exact opposite and hit him for four stress! Until we looked into it and realized that with the wereraven's Inhuman Speed and Diminutive Size he actually only hit for two. The wereraven took it like a trooper and the Raven Mocker managed to overtake him briefly.

The Knight didn't realize what the Raven Mocker was up to, and decided to just torch the bastard. She summoned up an extra shift of power, using the last of her Mental Stress track and summoned up a flurry of autumn leaves. They settled around the raven, and then, after a beat, all burst into flames. I barely had to prod at all, so she seems to be getting the hang of it. The raven was toast, and I changed the previous "Dimly Lit" aspect to "Brightly Lit and Smells Like Chicken."

Back to the pursuit, the wereraven used an Assess to determine an aspect of the Raven Mocker. He wanted to know how maneuverable it was, and I have "Big Black Bird of Death." so I decided that meant it was kinda clumsy in the air, at least compared to the inhumanly quick wereraven. I decided he gets a free tag for that, but that was the extent of his actions.

Another whiff, but barely from the Mocker attacking him. I had the third Mocker join the fight and thanks to its badass stealth it managed to snag a bit of the Autumn Knight's hair. She turned and, not wanting to risk the Consequences of further mental stress swung her knife. It was her turn to whiff.

Next the wereraven managed the epic win of the night. He made a Deceit roll to get it to slam into a wall, invoked his aspect of Trickster's Chosen, and tagged the other two aspects all at once. I treated it as a Weapon 0 attack, but with the combination of Trickster's Chosen, its Big Black Bird of Doom aspect, and the Hot Pursuit maneuver, he managed an astounding 11 shifts of damage. I didn't even bother applying consequences, though I guess I technically could have. It just seemed cheap after that. It managed to sucessfully break its own fool neck slamming facefirst into a wall and I described its death with the old joke of the bug's last thoughts at the windshield.

Sadly, they thought I was just making a random joke and not narrating its death. They looked so expectant. Tough crowd.

The remaining Raven Mocker, with the Autumn Knight's hair, took off effectively sprinting straight up. I decided it made it over 20 feet before the Knight got her turn. With few other options, she called upon her power once more. I gave her the option of taking either a moderate consequence (as her mild was already filled) or taking a point of Debt. Oh that fool, she took the debt. I will remember this.

So she cast the spell and, after some negotiation of its actual effect, she did a block on it against flying. I guess it didn't think its cunning plan all the way through. As its feathers molted into autumn leaves, it plummetted to the ground, and I had to pause to look up the falling rules. Well, that's interesting. I managed to roll a grand total of 1 on its athletics check to catch itself. 9 shifts of damage was, I guess, technically survivable if I wasn't using mook rules. But like with the other one, I decided it was better to train my players to be clever so I mookified it for these purposes. It splatted on the ground.

With no Fate points left, I decided the most interesting course of action would now be to Compel the wereraven. He has a Trouble of "ooh, shiny!" so I decided he really liked her knife. He swooped in and tried to carry it away, but that was to no avail. A very brief exchange occurred before he outwitted my compel, conceded, and took a consequence. She threw the actual raven into a pile of garbage, and he took a consequence of "smells like garbage." It was only really Mild, maybe Moderate if it was particularly fragrant, but since this was a fairly weak conflict to begin with I just gave him the consequence and didn't give him the fate point for cashing out. He then returned to human form and explained himself, and the two of them decided to figure out just what the heck those things were. Oh, and get him some pants.

After that, me and the Knight's player managed to figure out a couple Focus items she needed to shore up her weaknesses. Hopefully knowing that she is better at fire for offense and wind for defense will help her out in the future. I also think I need to better incorporate ALL the players so if someone misses a game, it's not so crippling to my plans. Still, sending in the bird-ninjas managed to at least make for an interesting fight. It took longer than it should have, but likely it will get easier in the future once we're all more familiar with it.

So, in conclusion, I found pretty much both the flaws and the benefits of the system. It's very flexible, but that in itself can also be hindering. The wereraven's player managed to take pretty good advantage of the Aspects system to destroy an enemy without even using a combat skill. The Autumn Knight was often paralyzed by the idea that she could do anything if she tried hard enough. I think she was looking for a spell list. Towards the end she seemed to get the hang of it and I really liked her use of blocks at the end. I'm sure I personally made some systems errors which someone will helpfully point out. To be fair, I've never played the system. I'm trying to go straight to GM without being player first, so there's bound to be some hiccups.

Also, I now need to figure out why the Raven Mockers were there, when for reasons too complex to discuss, they should not have been. That can be dealt with next wee,

For reasons I cannot fully disclose because I know at least one of my players browses this forum, I'm interested in whether or not potions can be used for attacks. That is, can someone without Evocation or Channeling brew up a one-time use potion that takes the form of something nasty to hurl in an emergency?

What is the system for a potion-based attack?

If you are playing the Dresden Files in Asheville, NC, I request you please read no further.





stop reading.








I mean it.








Okay, here we go. Let me give the state of the Autumn Court in my game. This is kinda long.

The Reaper King has long been a proponent of neutrality and noninterference. As long as Spring was willing to not make a play for power and just live and let live, he saw no need to even appoint a Knight. Spring and Autumn were essentially at peace, with a powerful working erasing them from memory yet allowing them to act freely in the time before you forget.

They are signatories of the Accords, just as Seelie and Unseelie. They can act as a Court and as full representatives of the Accords, but the agent is forgotten or obscured. You know someone showed up at the meeting, but you don't remember the name or who they represented. You know there is a signature, but it's an illegible scribble though it seems legit. When they're standing in front of you, you remember everything you need to but when they leave you again forget. This is a hugely powerful defense, but the effect is reliant upon the Changing Courts' neutrality. If either court breaks the peace, or takes sides in a conflict between signatories, or even moves in an aggressive manner, the glamour starts to unravel.

The Reaper King is King of Autumn (he goes by many names, but the Reaper King is what he prefers now). It's a misconception that Winter is about Death. In fact, Winter is about being dead. Autumn is about death and the process of dying, but also the harvest, the feast, the bounty...the last celebration and enjoyment before winter sets in. He's also not cruel, or at least unnecessarily cruel. He's Fae, and that makes him dangerous and alien, but his pact of nonaggression with his opposing court is unique and representative of how reasonable he is compared to most other Fae.

Jack is his Autumn Prince. Which Jack, you ask? All of them, none of them. Legends tell of him tricking giants, the Devil, and Death itself.  In demeanor, he's far more approachable than the Reaper King, being a merry prankster who likes to do things with panache and a sense of whimsy.

In truth, these two are in conflict and have been for some time. There is a generational divide that plays into some themes in my game of old fighting against new fighting against even older things come 'round again. Jack chafes at the restrictions. The King knows Jack would upset the whole board if picking up the pieces would be more interesting. Neither one is truly acting against their nature as the trickster and the harvester are two strong archetypes of Autumn, though perhaps Jack has been more influenced by mortal legends than the other way around. And now, with several plots underway, he has approached his endgame:

The death of the Reaper King, and his own ascension to the Harvest Throne.

Obviously, this would be a huge upset to the supernatural world. Even if the Spring and Autumn courts are not widely known or understood, the loss of a King of Fae would throw the world out of balance. If the Reaper King dies, the entire Forgotten Seasons working would collapse and suddenly there would be two new players free to act. So, now I finally get to my questions:

What should the Spring Court do if they get wind of Jack's machinations? Remember they can't act aggressively without unraveling the spell. The appointing of a Knight by Autumn has already caused some threads to fray and Oberon does not want it to collapse completely. Appointing a Spring Knight is almost mandatory, but would only make things worse. The Autumn Knight is key to Jack's plans, so killing her could solve the problem, but how can Spring accomplish that?

What would happen to the Autumn Knight if the King dies? Obviously, the Prince would be promoted, but I think that Lily being promoted to Summer Lady was kind of a special case. Would someone else take the Autumn Prince role? Or could it throw things even further out of balance by leaving that slot open?

And how badly would the world be thrown off if either Spring or Autumn get the upper hand in a decisive way? We know what would happen if Summer or Winter win, but the Changing Courts are a lot more nebulous.

And, as a plot thing I'm still trying to figure out, how could Jack's endgame play out here in getting the Reaper King killed as a result of his own Autumn Knight?

If a character is the Knight of a Fae Court (and nothing else) are they bound by the Laws? That is, if they kill someone using Unseelie Spellcasting, do they take Lawbreaker? The only examples I can find where any flavor of sponsored magic coincides with Lawbreaker, the caster has either Thaumaturgy or Evocation as well.

Also, if a Warden gets word of it, would they be executed? Normally that wouldn't be an issue because even if they do take Lawbreaker, the Wardens would know better than to potentially anger one of the Fae Courts that recklessly. However, naturally one of my players is the Autumn Knight and doesn't entirely know where her spellcasting comes from. She could be easily mistaken for a focused practitioner or a sorcerer. I imagine application of the Sight would reveal her magic is "different," but just HOW different?